Slow cookers are used to heat food slowly or keep food warm over an extended period of time. In order to transport a slow cooker from a cooking location, e.g., a kitchen, to a serving location, e.g., a dining room, the food must be safely held in the cooker. Conventional slow cookers require transporting the entire apparatus from the cooking location to the serving location. This may be cumbersome when the cooker, especially when full of food, is heavy, or when there is little space or the serving location is far away, as in another building. Also, conventional slow cookers are limited to cooking the food in the cooker and the food must be transferred to another container for further cooking, e.g., on a stove. Moreover, conventional slow cookers require a great deal of energy in heat generation for enough heat to transfer to the food.
Accordingly, there is a need and desire to provide a slow cooker with an improved locking mechanism, improved energy use, and improved portability.